PSR Mourns the Loss of Paul Epstein

The PSR community has lost a pioneer, a
champion, and an outstanding colleague in the field of climate change and public
health. Paul Epstein, MD MPH, co-founder and co-director of Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment, died early this week.

A physician and public health expert, Dr.
Epstein was both a prolific researcher and a bellwether in his field. His copious
academic research documented the many ways in which climate change poses a
public health crisis, from infectious disease outbreaks to increases in
seasonal allergies to coal pollution-induced asthma.

In addition to his research, Epstein worked
with government agencies including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the National
Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to assess
the health impacts of climate change.

He was also a
paragon of health professional advocacy, repeatedly briefing Congressional
staffers on both sides of the aisle on the implications of his work. He was
committed to bringing science into policymaking, and passionate about the
necessity, for the future of humanity, of making sure lawmakers understood the
science of climate change and public health.

Dr. Epstein
addressed PSR audiences and helped advance PSR’s mission in many settings. Here
are highlights of some of his most recent collaborations with PSR:

In
2009, PSR’s New Mexico chapter asked Dr. Epstein to deliver testimony to the
New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board in support of a carbon cap. “His
voice was very important,” remembered Dr. Michael McCally, former PSR executive
director and New Mexico PSR activist. “He was the leading voice on this issue,
the expert’s expert.” Although Dr. Epstein was too ill to deliver the testimony
himself, the testimony helped convince the Board to approve the carbon cap for
the state.

Also in 2009,
Dr. Epstein was the keynote speaker at PSR’s national student conference in New
York. His talk, addressing the health effects of climate change and the key
role of health professionals in addressing this issue, was the highlight of the
conference.

In 2010, Dr.
Epstein served as expert reviewer of PSR’s report, Coal’s Assault on Human
Health, providing invaluable insight and advice
as we prepared this complex report for publication.

Just this year,
I had the honor of co-authoring a commentary with Dr. Epstein for PSR’s Environmental Health Policy
Institute on “The Costs of Coal.” He was an impassioned expert on this topic,
having documented in various ways the true lifecycle costs of our reliance on
coal.

“His views provoked arguments. Within the
politically contentious climate-change debate, it has been especially hard to
prove direct links between climate events and the outbreak of disease. But Dr.
Epstein’s prolific writing and his championing of others’ research broadened
the terms of the debate — initially focused on long-term threats facing coastal
populations and Arctic polar bears, for instance — to include questions about
potentially sudden, unforeseeable public health catastrophes.”

We will miss this true friend of PSR, and the
world will miss this true friend of humanity who worked so tirelessly to
communicate the formidable dangers of climate change.

Comments

Kelly Orringer said ..

Paul helped open the eyes of this former medical student to the interplay of our environment on our, and our children's health. HMS has lost a great teacher!